Tag: Balkans

Call to contribute to a Special Collection “Vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula” in Vegetation Classification and Survey

A newly launched Special Collection “Vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula” in the open-access, peer-reviewed IAVS journal is now welcoming submissions.

Guest blog post by Jürgen Dengler, Erwin Bergmeier and Urban Šilc

We are pleased to announce the Special Collection on the vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula in IAVS’ gold open access journal Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS).

This Special Collection is launched in conjunction with the annual conferences of two IAVS Working Groups in 2026, namely the 21st Eurasian Grassland Conference of the EDGG in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the 34th Conference of the European Vegetation Survey (EVS), in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Within Europe, the vegetation of the Balkan Peninsula is particularly diverse yet understudied in terms of composition, variation and range. With this Special Collection, we thus want to advance the knowledge on the Balkan vegetation, take a fresh look both within and beyond national borders and contribute to an improvement of the “EuroVegChecklist” as the common syntaxonomic backbone of the continent. Following VCS’s scope, contributions either need to develop or to apply a vegetation classification framework of any type. For example, this can be based on a phytosociological classification system, habitat types, or synusiae. Studies on any kind of vegetation from the coasts to the highest mountains, from natural through semi-natural to anthropogenic are welcome.

We envisage particularly the following types of contributions:

  • Revisions of syntaxa (classes, orders, alliances…) at the national or supranational level
  • Vegetation monographs of a certain region
  • Synthetic overviews (category Review and Synthesis) of all syntaxa of a country or other larger regions
  • Nomenclatural proposals related to Balkan syntaxa
  • Habitat typologies and their application
  • Long and Short Database Reports
  • Perspectives on how to harmonize and how to utilize syntaxonomic knowledge

Apart from Research Papers, also Reviews and Syntheses and Forum Papers as well as Long Database Reports and Nomenclatural Proposals are welcome. We hope to see submissions from the Balkan countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey-in-Europe), while syntheses across multiple countries are particularly welcome. Please consult the author guidelines whose formal requirements also apply to the Special Collection.

Editors: Jürgen Dengler (Switzerland), Erwin Bergmeier (Germany) and Urban Šilc (Slovenia); in case of a high number of submissions, one or two additional guest editors might be appointed.

Procedure and deadlines:

  • Until 31 October 2026: Please submit your (preliminary) abstract online at: https://forms.gle/gxofv8FuZQkqFmeK7. The abstract must follow the VCS Author Guidelines.
  • Until 30 November 2026: The Guest Editors will evaluate the abstracts and inform the authors which manuscripts are invited for submission.
  • Until 30 May 2027: Invited manuscripts can be submitted at: https://vcs.pensoft.net/ 
  • Spring 2028: The Special Collection will be completed with a synthesizing editorial by the Guest Editor team.

Please note that VCS is a gold open access journal where authors are normally required to pay article processing charges (APCs). First authors who are IAVS members receive 50% or 75% discount on regular APCs. If you are an IAVS member but cannot afford the reduced APCs (e.g. because your university does not provide APC funds), you can – after invitation and prior to submission – apply to IAVS’ Global Sponsorship Committee (GSC) for a complete waiver of the APCs, i.e. publishing free of charge. If interested, please get into contact with the chair of the Guest Editors.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and hope that you will join us in making this Special Collection a valuable resource for the IAVS community.

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Eurasian eagle owl diet reveals new records of threatened giant bush-crickets

Bird diets provide a real treasure for research into the distribution and conservation of their prey, conclude scientists after studying the Eurasian Eagle Owl in southeastern Bulgaria. In their paper, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa”, they report the frequent presence of the threatened Big-Bellied Glandular Bush-Cricket, and conclude that studies on the Eurasian Eagle Owl could be used to identify biodiversity-rich areas in need of protection.

Male specimen of the Big-Bellied Glandular Bush-Cricket (Bradyporus macrogaster)
Photo by Dragan Chobanov

Bird diets provide a real treasure for research into the distribution and conservation of their prey, such as overlooked and rare bush-cricket species, point out scientists after studying the diet of the Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) in southeastern Bulgaria.

In their paper, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa”, Dr Dragan Chobanov (Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgaria) and Dr Boyan Milchev (University of Forestry, Bulgaria) report the frequent presence of the threatened with extinction Big-Bellied Glandular Bush-Cricket (Bradyporus macrogaster) in the diet of Eurasian Eagle Owls, and conclude that the predatory bird could be used to identify biodiversity-rich areas in need of protection.

While the Balkan Peninsula has already been recognised as the area with the highest diversity of orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets and bush-crickets) in Europe and one of the generally most biologically diverse areas in the whole Palearctic realm, it is also home to a worrying number of threatened species. Additionally, a thorough and updated country assessment of the conservation status of the orthopterans found in Bulgaria is currently lacking. This is why the Bulgarian team undertook a study on the biodiversity of these insects by analysing food remains from pellets of Eurasian Eagle Owls, collected from 53 breeding sites in southeastern Bulgaria.

As a result, the scientists reported three species of bush crickets that have become a significant part of the diet of the studied predatory birds. Curiously enough, all three species are rare or threatened in Bulgaria. The case of the Big-Bellied Glandular Bush-Cricket is of special concern, as it is a species threatened by extinction. Meanwhile, the local decline in mammals and birds that weigh between 0.2 and 1.9 kg, which are in fact the preferred prey for the Eurasian Eagle Owl, has led the highly opportunistic predator to increasingly seek large insects for food. The researchers even suspect that there might be more overlooked species attracting the owls.

Taking into account the hereby reported interconnected inferences of conservation concern, as well as the vulnerability of the Big-Bellied Glandular Bush-Cricket, a species with a crucial role in the food chain, the scientists call for the newly provided data to prompt the designation of a new Natura 2000 site. Additionally, due to the species’ requirements for habitats of low disturbance and high vegetation diversity, and its large size and easy location via singing males, they point out that it makes a suitable indicator for habitat quality and species community health.

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Original source:

Chobanov D, Milchev B (2020) Orthopterans (Insecta: Orthoptera) of conservation value in the Eurasian Eagle Owl Bubo bubo food in Bulgaria. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 63(2): 161-167. https://doi.org/10.3897/travaux.63.e53867